Last night, I stayed up late watching Southland. Late night TV is a habit that often seeps into my dreams. Sometime in the early hours, I found myself in a dream where I played the role of a detective alongside my partner, investigating a crime whose specifics now escape me. What stuck with me, however, was the final conversation I had with my partner. We were discussing the urgency of apprehending someone who was both the target in a gang war (echoing the episode I’d watched involving an escalating gang conflict) and was hiding in a rough neighbourhood.
“Gonna be a rush to get there,” my partner mentioned (or something along those lines).
“A race through dark places,” I responded.
Then I woke up.
That last statement of mine lingered in my mind after I awoke. “A race through dark places.” I felt it would make an awesome title for something. I knew I had to jot it down. Additionally, there was this nagging feeling that I’d encountered or heard it somewhere before. Naturally, once I got up, I turned to our trusty friend, Google.
I haven’t watched Babylon 5 in years. The mention of B5 crossed my mind briefly over the weekend when I visited a friend who had borrowed my DVDs. But apart from that passing reference, my brain dredged up this episode title and somehow fit it into a dream scenario that had no connection with the show whatsoever. I can barely recall the episode from which this title originates.
Sometimes, my brain surprises me.
I just wish it would hurry up and furnish the entire plot of my blockbuster novel…